Biking to work to boost wellbeing

Did you know that exercise is proven to have a hugely positive impact on our quality of life and our mental health? It can help improve our concentration, the quality of our sleep and make us feel more motivated.

Our people in LIBERTY Ostrava in the Czech Republic boosted their wellbeing by getting involved in a nationwide initiative called Biking to Work.

The aim of the event was to create a team of fellow bikers and commute to work as often as possible during the month of May. Those who didn‘t make a team could compete with other individuals in terms of the overall number of kilometres they had ridden during the campaign.

Our people at LIBERTY Ostrava had extra reason to be proud. Their best biker, Pavel Hřivňacký from the hot strip mill, beat all other bikers for the challenge in the city of Ostrava. At a national level too, his performance of 3,003 km secured him an impressive 11th place in all the Czech Republic.

Even more impressively, Pavel achieved all this not with a professional bicycle but on a bicycle that was intended for the scrap yard! He’s so committed that he cycles to and from work on this old bike all year round, through wind and snow. He works double shifts so leaves his house as early as 3AM for his morning shift and the 40-kilometer-long route takes him two hours.

Check out the results:

• A total of 47 employees from LIBERTY Ostrava were involved in the initiative. Altogether they covered 29,533 km and walked 1,228 km (as there was a special category for walkers as well).
• Libor Maňák from the Sinter plant came in second with 2,214 km and the third place went to Zbyněk Husák from Tubular plant with his 1,804 km.
• The best team performance was delivered by the four-member team of Klika 13 that had ridden a total of 4,328 km. Los Hujeros, which Pavel Hřivňacký was a member of, came in second with 4,204 km. And the bronze medal went to ZPoBIK3 team for their 3,532 km.
• There was good representation amongst colleagues of all genders. The best bikers among women were Renáta Zameczniková with 1,076 km; Naděžda Janošcová with 847 km came in second and Ivana Kladrubská secured the third place with her 798 kilometres.  

Mental health and physical health influence each other. That’s why our health and safety strategy, Be GFG Safe, includes mental health and wellbeing (MH & WB) as one of its strategic pillars. Our mental health supports our operational safety.